Docs Respond To St. Joe's Settlement

Lawyers For Whistleblowers, Accused Doc Speak Out

A day after St. Joseph Medical Center agreed to a $22 million settlement involving kickbacks and the unnecessary implantation of heart stents, lawyers for the doctors involved in the settlement spoke out.

The settlement resolved a lawsuit that said the hospital made illegal payments to cardiology group MidAtlantic Cardiovascular Associates in return for Medicaid and Medicare patient referrals for cardiac procedures.

It ended what began as a complaint from three cardiac surgeons who worked for a competitor of MACVA. Attorney Steven Simms represents the whistleblowers who will split $2.7 million from the settlement.

"When referrals are made based on how much money is paid, not on the basis of getting you to the best physician, that's wrong, and that's what they were concerned with. It's not sour grapes at all. People's lives are at stake here," Simms said.

The lawsuit also accused Dr. Mark Midei, a one-time partner in MACVA who was later employed by SJMC, of implanting the unnecessary stents, but he didn't have to pay money.

Midei's lawyer, Stephen Snyder, reacted to the settlement on Wednesday.

"St. Joe's threw Dr. Midei under the bus," he said. "They acted inappropriately, having absolutely no connection whatsoever to Dr. Midei in the performance of stents."

U.S. attorney Rod Rosenstein on Wednesday acknowledged the settlement still accuses Midei of wrongdoing, but he didn't say if it opened the door for criminal charges to be filed.

"It doesn't open the door. It doesn't close the door. The settlement agreement doesn't speak at all to any liability that Mr. Midei or anybody else might have," he said. "It's relatively rare, but we can and in some cases have pursued criminal charges when we believe we had evidence beyond a reasonable doubt that a doctor was taking action that endangered his patients."

Over the summer, a federal grand jury indicted Salisbury Dr. John McClain on criminal charges that alleged he implanted unnecessary heart stents.